th the illusion to have cheated him of the other." Coke insists
on the inventory by the schedule! Her ladyship says, "I made such plate
for matter and form for my own use at Purbeck, that serving well enough
in the country; and I was loth to trust such a substance in a place so
remote, and in the guard of few; but for the plate and vessell he saith
is wanting, they are every ounce within one of my three houses." She
complains that Sir Edward Coke and his son Clement had threatened her
servants so grievously, that the poor men run away to hide themselves
from his fury, and dare not appear abroad. "Sir Edward broke into Hatton
House, seased upon my coach and coach-horses, nay, my apparel, which he
detains; thrust all my servants out of doors without wages; sent down
his men to Corfe to inventory, seize, ship, and carry away all the
goods, which being refused him by the castle-keeper, he threats to bring
your lordship's warrant for the performance thereof. But your lordship
established that he should have the use only of the goods during his
life, in such houses as the same appertained, without meaning, I hope,
of depriving me of such use, being goods brought at my marriage, or
bought with the money I spared from my allowances. Stop, then, his high
tyrannical courses; for I have suffered beyond the measure of any wife,
mother, nay, of any ordinary woman in this kingdom, without respect to
my father, my birth, my fortunes, with _which I have so highly-raised
him_."

What availed the vexation of this sick, mortified, and proud woman, or
the more tender feelings of the daughter, in this forced marriage to
satisfy the political ambition of the father? When Lord Bacon wrote to
the king respecting the strange behaviour of Coke, the king vindicated
it, for the purpose of obtaining his daughter, blaming Lord Bacon for
some expressions he had used; and Bacon, with the servility of the
courtier, when he found the wind in his teeth, tacked round, and
promised Buckingham to promote the match he so much abhorred.[347]
Villiers was married to the daughter of Coke at Hampton Court, on
Michaelmas Day, 1617--Coke was re-admitted to the council-table--Lady
Hatton was reconciled to Lady Compton and the queen, and gave a grand
entertainment on the occasion, to which, however, "the good man of the
house was neither invited nor spoken of: he dined that day at the
Temple; she is still bent to pull down her husband," adds my informant.
The moral